St Vincent’s chemotherapy scandal: Fears there could be hundreds of victims
MICHAEL Mitchell’s grandchild is due in 10 days but the much-loved butcher will never meet the baby. His family have learned he is one of possible hundreds affected by the St Vincent’s underdosing scandal.
MICHAEL Mitchell’s first grandchild is due in 10 days but the loved Condobolin butcher will never meet the baby.
His family thought he was getting the best treatment available for his head and neck cancer under Dr John Grygiel at St Vincent’s Hospital. Now they’ve learned he was one of at least 78 patients whose chemotherapy was underdosed by the oncologist.
“He always wanted grandchildren,” Mr Mitchell’s pregnant daughter Mikhala Mitchell told The Daily Telegraph yesterday. The 22-year-old’s comments come amid concerns over Dr Grygiel’s treatment dating as far back as 1995 — meaning the scandal could involve hundreds of patients.
Former Cabonne Shire resident Kris Robertson was diagnosed with primary bowel cancer in 1995.
She claims she beat the disease after seeking treatment away from Dr Grygiel, who she says challenged her decision to have chemotherapy.
Another doctor recommended chemotherapy but she claims Dr Grygiel disagreed with the treatment, saying “there was no clinical evidence to support it”.
She sought and secured a referral to another doctor at St George Hospital in Kogarah and eventually managed to get chemotherapy, which she says helped get rid of her cancer. However, she claims Dr Grygiel, who was responsible for the follow up, maintained his opposition to the treatment.
Mikhala said her family was devastated when her father’s life was stolen by cancer aged 55 in September 2014.
Then in a March 1, 2016, letter from the hospital they were told he had not received the recommended guideline dosage of the medication carboplatin.
The letter arrived two weeks after what would have been his 56th birthday.
“It was pretty shattering,” Ms Mitchell said.
Her father was diagnosed with tongue cancer in February 2014 but it spread to his throat and lungs.
At a check-up in June, they were reassured all was well.
“We were told he was in remission and we didn’t expect him to pass,” Ms Mitchell said.
In August, Associate Professor Richard Gallagher from the Kinghorne Clinic told them the cancer was terminal. He had only two months to live. He died one month short of what would have been his 30th anniversary to Debbie, with whom he had been in a relationship since the age of 16.
“He never complained once, he was the one who made everyone strong,” his wife said.
Like the other families, they are left with not knowing.
The Daily Telegraph was told yesterday that Dr Grygiel allegedly asked cancer patient Sheila Bradbury strange questions as he treated her with chemotherapy.
Ms Bradbury, the late mother-in-law of Greens MLC Jeremy Buckingham, died in 2013 after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004.
Dr Grygiel took over her care at Orange and St Vincent’s Hospital around 2010, according to her husband Lee.
He added: “Grygiel came out with the most amazing sentences that really don’t relate a lot to that given person.”
Mr Bradbury said it is unclear if his wife was prescribed low doses of chemotherapy drugs because Sheila never questioned his judgment.
Lithgow Mayor Maree Statham’s husband Bob died in 2007 after being treated by Dr Grygiel in Bathurst.
Bob Statham was diagnosed with low grade lymphoma, a type of highly treatable blood cancer, in 2005 and first came into contact with Dr Grygiel at Daffodil Cottage, a chemotherapy unit in Bathurst. Ms Statham claims Dr Grygiel told her husband, then in his mid-50s, he had 20 years to live.
Teresa Casa said her brother, Salvatore De Francesco, saw Dr Grygiel after being diagnosed with brain cancer 2013. He died in February this year. She said her brother told her Dr Grygiel didn’t seem interested in helping him.
GRYGIEL WORKED AT FOUR LOCATIONS
Miles Godfrey
NSW Health last night confirmed Dr John Grygiel had worked in four key locations across the state.
Official records show Dr Grygiel was first registered to work as a medical practitioner in 1975.
NSW Health said he worked as a “staff specialist” at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Camperdown between 1989 and 1992. During this time he began providing “outreach” clinics at Bathurst and in Orange.
This is a common practice, involving experienced doctors and health experts taking their work and expertise to rural and regional locations on a temporary basis.
Dr Grygiel moved to St Vincent’s Hospital in 1992 and continued his outreach work in the Central West until March 2013.
His lawyer, Stephen Blanks, last night said his client was “pleased” that an interim report into the scandal had found “St Vincent’s public statements that he (Dr Grygiel) had been counselled and subject to supervision were untrue”.
“As you can appreciate, those statements were very damaging to his reputation. We have always maintained that those statements were untrue and the inquiry has supported that position,” Mr Blanks added.
Dr Grygiel was stood down in February after the cancer underdosing scandal emerged.
Authorities have said he would not return to work at St Vincent’s. He had been due to retire this year.
It remains unclear if any complaints were made against Dr Grygiel during his career but Australian Health Regulatory Agency records show he had no reprimands, notations or special registration requirements against his name.
NSW Health said no complaints about Dr Grygiel or his work were made directly to the Ministry of Health.
“Patient complaints about clinicians would normally be directed to the relevant local health district or the Health Care Complaints Committee,” a spokesman for the department said.
‘THERE MUST BE A PUBLIC INQUIRY’
Miles Godfrey
HEALTH Minister Jillian Skinner was in hiding and the Baird government appeared paralysed as the St Vincent’s Hospital health scandal continued to unfold yesterday.
Ms Skinner was missing in action as angry patients and their families demanded answers about oncologist Dr John Grygiel, who has been found to have underdosed cancer patients at St Vincent’s Hospital between 2012-15.
Dr Grygiel has practised at hospitals across the state since 1975 and fresh questions emerged yesterday about his treatment methods stretching back to the mid-1990s.
But with Premier Mike Baird on a visit to Israel and Ms Skinner ducking her responsibilities, Acting Premier Troy Grant was handed the job of fronting reporters.
“As the Acting Premier, while Mike’s away, they (the families and victims) can’t get a message from a higher level of government to genuinely offer that sympathy,” he said.
Dr Grygiel’s former patients, their families and Greens MLC Jeremy Buckingham all backed calls from the opposition for a special inquiry to get to the bottom of how the oncologist was allowed to continue working for so long.
Serious questions also remain about how St Vincent’s Hospital failed so badly in its response and duty of care, along with its grossly misleading public statements as the scandal broke in February.
“There must be a public inquiry. I’m lucky because I’m still alive but there are many cancer patients who are no longer with us to speak out,” said former bowel cancer patient Kris Robertson, who claims Dr Grygiel challenged her decision to undertake chemotherapy in Orange during 1995. Lithgow Mayor Maree Statham, whose husband Bob died of cancer in 2007 having been treated by Dr Grygiel in Bathurst, also wants a public inquiry.”
Opposition Leader Luke Foley slammed Ms Skinner yesterday.
He said she must step in and take control.
BOARD WILL ‘WAIT’ FOR FINAL REPORT
Andrew Clennell
THE high-powered board charged with deciding if anyone loses their job over the Dr John Grygiel scandal at St Vincent’s Hospital includes some of the state’s most influential people.
Health Minister Jillian Skinner has made it clear she has no power to sack any senior people at St Vincent’s, even though it was public patients who were being mistreated.
“That is a responsibility of the board,” the minister’s spokeswoman said.
The chairman of that board is Paul Robertson, a former executive director of Macquarie Bank.
Also on the board is Myer and NSW Ports chairman Paul McClintock.
And on the board until December 2015 was Melissa Babbage, the wife of former federal treasurer and Ambassador to Washington Joe Hockey.
Others currently on the board include Brendan Earle, a partner in law firm Herbert Smith Freehills; Professor Peter Smith, dean of the Faculty of Medicine at UNSW; and Mary Wright a former principal of Loreto College, Kirribilli. A previous national partner at KPMG, Patricia Faulkner, is another member, as is Suzanne Crowe, an associate director of the Burnet Institute.
Others include Ergon Energy director Gary Humphrys, and Maryanne Confoy, a professor of pastoral theology.
Individual members of the board did not respond to requests for comment yesterday. Chairman Mr Robertson issued a statement on behalf of the entire board to The Daily Telegraph saying: “On behalf of the board, I want to again apologise unreservedly to the patients and families affected by this matter, and to the wider community in Sydney and across the state, which has supported our work at St Vincent’s for the past 160 years.
“The community, like our patients, have high expectations of our hospitals and this time, on this very serious issue, we clearly let them down badly.
“As a board, we have two key priorities at the moment and these have been communicated to the executive of the hospital.
“We will provide whatever support is necessary to the patients affected and their families; and we are and will continue to put systems in place to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
“On that front, I can confirm that for the past 18 months, we have been making major changes to strengthen governance within the hospital.
“As a group we have co-operated fully with the review instituted by the NSW government and will continue to do so.
“We will implement all the recommendations contained in the interim report of the review as they impact our hospital.
“We will wait for the final report from the review team before taking further action.”
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